Announcing MCP Toolbox Java SDK v1.0: Agentic data access for the enterprise
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Cloud & Infrastructure
The New Stack·25d ago·5 min read
GitHub and Anthropic used their own agents for major Rust rewrites — with very different playbooks
TL;DR
GitHub has successfully rewritten its Copilot agent runtime from TypeScript to Rust, utilizing its own AI coding agents for the transition. This migration, involving over 800,000 lines of code, highlights the significant role of AI in modern software development.
✦ Why It Matters
Consider using AI tools like GitHub Copilot to enhance your coding efficiency and streamline migrations.
Key Takeaways
- Explore AI agents for code migration to save time and resources.
- Consider Rust for new projects to improve memory safety.
- Utilize incremental development strategies for large rewrites.
- Monitor AI-assisted coding for quality assurance during migrations.
Full Summary
Rust is gaining traction for its memory safety and performance benefits, prompting companies like GitHub and Anthropic to migrate their software. GitHub rewrote its Copilot agent runtime from TypeScript to Rust, leveraging its own Copilot AI agents to complete the task in just a few months, a process that would have previously taken a full team years.
This migration involved 128 pull requests, allowing for incremental testing and fixes. Similarly, Anthropic's Bun project transitioned from Zig to Rust, using multiple Claude AI agents to translate code simultaneously, completing the task in 11 days.
Both companies highlight that AI agents made these significant rewrites feasible, reducing the time and resources required. The trend indicates a growing reliance on AI for major software migrations, as seen in other projects at Meta and OpenAI.